Eloquent. Spellbinding. Monumental. Exquisite. How else can we describe the Esmé Quartet? Based in Germany, this ensemble launched its international career by winning first prize at the 2018 International String Quartet Competition at London’s Wigmore Hall. The ensemble then embarked on a whirlwind year of concerts in North America, Hong Kong and Japan.

For their Australian debut the musicians play works which are the epitome of youth: an early work of Webern overflows with romantic invention, while Mendelssohn’s second String Quartet blazes with the heart-on-sleeve emotion of a teenage genius, and emerging Australian composer Jack Frerer’s Spiral Sequences is an exhilarating roller-coaster ride. Add to this Claude Debussy’s only string quartet, brimming with rhythmic and harmonic exuberance.